Out on a limb

I remained in contact with Professor Bell via email for a few months after Alan left hospital as I had questions that I felt needed to be answered. He was very help­ful and tried his best to answer them. He told me that Alan’s aneurysm, given its size, would be likely to rupture within a year or two. He also said that if Alan’s blood pressure remained low then there was a slight chance that the aneurysm may shrink but the only way to confirm that was for Alan to have another scan.

As you can imagine, both Alan and I were very frightened about what lay ahead. We have since been told by our general prac­titioner that when the hospital had written and informed us of this ‘small bulge’ it was in fact 6.1cm (aneurysms are normally considered for surgery at 5cm) and neither of us can understand why he wasn’t seen im­mediately, let alone why he had to wait a further three months to be seen, by which time it had grown to 7.5cm.

Alan felt his death was imminent. I suggested that he have another scan as that would be the only way of finding out for sure. He was very depressed and frightened and was very unsure about having another scan as he was living in hope that the aneurysm may shrink.

When Professor Bell told me that he was retiring I took to searching the internet for any information and started writing to vascular surgeons in America who, having read of our situation, insisted we find some­one and get a second opinion as there are techniques which could be considered. One professor in the USA said that the whole aorta could be replaced or another technique could be employed where the aorta is enclosed by an external stent or graft (or whatever the term is). The general opinion of all the people I had written to was that something could be done to pos­sibly save my husband.

Professor Robert Stuart Bonser

NHS Death Row versus The Priory Hospital: Professor 'God' Bonser :)

This blog is a HUGE "Thank You" to Professor Robert Stuart Bonser - of the Priory Hospital in Birmingham - for saving my husbands' life, after he had been deliberately misdiagnosed as inoperable and terminally ill by a Professor with a Knighthood who was working for the NHS.

Cure the NHS campaign group

Dead patients don't cost the NHS a thing

How many women need to stand up to Britain’s cash-strapped National Health Service and strip its policies bare to reveal a strange, ingrown corruption that declares some patients inoperable, and sends them home to die, in order to balance their books and reduce waiting lists?The dual culprits in my husbands' potential demise were a nastily burgeoning aneurysm on his aorta, and a National Health Service so good at hiding life-saving information, even from itself, that it could spend as much to kill him as to save him. When a doctor can save a life, he is supposed to do it, but some keep silent about expensive treatment. Dead patients don't cost the NHS a thing.This could happen to any one of us.When you are given a prognosis with no hope, please don’t stop there. The worldwide web is very useful to help research anything and everything that might apply to your illness. My own research found life-saving information in the USA, The Netherlands, Germany and Norway. But what I really needed was right here in the UK - the NHS just didn't want me to know about it. This story has been featured in Take a Break magazine in the UK.

Sir Professor Peter Bell

The knighted professor at Leicester Royal Infirmary who diagnosed my husband inoperable to save money for the NHS and to meet Government targets. He didn't have the relevant expertise himself but failed to use NHS guidelines to refer my husband to Professor Bonser, until 14 months later, despite knowing of his expertise. click on picture to view email.

University Hospitals Leicester

Cardiologists lead the way in the task of deciding which patients should receive certain expensive diagnostic tests and which should not